A Christmas Memory
by StandingOnTheRooftops
Summary: SP 5. Unadulterated fluff, with a bit of sap and angst thrown in. AU. Sally had no plans for the holiday, until she met a dark eyed boy at his wife's death bed. A little late for X-mas, but I forgot to post it then... so I'm doing it now.


AN: I don't own GW. A little late for Christmas, I know... but I just forgot to post this! ^^

Warnings: Unadulterated fluff and sap. Maybe a little bit on the sad side, but it's really sweet.

~*~*~

**_A Christmas Memory_**

~*~*~

Sally hated the night shift. She really, really hated it. And what made things worse, was that it was officially Christmas Day, as of three minutes ago. Seeing so many people happy and cheerful... it really irked her. She had no family to speak of, she had very few friends outside of work.

Lake Victoria Medical Complex was a rather small hospital. And as such, it was pretty deserted on the holiday. So deserted that it could run off of a skeleton crew of doctors and nurses- nurses like her with nothing better to do.

Sighing as she clocked in, Sally glanced at the charts to see where she was heading next on her rounds.

Room 51. Chang, Meiran.

Sighing again, Sally set out.

* * *

The room was kept very, very dim. There was no TV anywhere to light the area, the only sound was the soft beeping and whirring of the equipment, the quiet drip of the IV. A long, pale figure lay, draped in a blue hospital blanket, on the bed. In a chair beside the bed, someone sat, legs pulled up underneath them.

According to the file, Meiran Chang had been in a comma for several months now. And from the looks of things, her companion was alseep. Sally quietly moved through the room, checking to make sure all the cords and tubes were straight, making sure the IV was working right, generally just making sure everything was okay.

With everything checked off, Sally moved to leave, no one the wiser to her presence. But a movement caught her eye. He was shivering, she noted, glancing at the sleeping girl's visitor. Outside, there was snow on the ground, and in here, the temperature was warm, but there was a chill. And here the poor soul was wearing naught but a thin white T-shirt and pants.

Sally, a silent as mist, opened the closet door and withdrew an extra blanket. She unfolded it and gently draped it over the slumbering boy. He didn't rouse that she could see, and so she turned to leave again.

"Thank you."

Sally refrained from jumping, but it was a very near thing. Slowly, she turned back around.

He hadn't moved, but Sally could tell that he was awake. In the light from the hall, she could see black hair.

"You're welcome," she said, pausing.

"I would wish you a merry Christmas, but I doubt being stuck here could be considered 'merry'." Sally stepped back into the room, hearing the sneer in his voice.

"I hate it, but I chose this shift," she shrugged. "I have no family or friends to spend the day with, so why not let the ones that do have the day free?"

"Why indeed," he nodded his head. "Christmas was Meiran's favorite holiday." He snorted. "She wasn't even a Christian, and yet she loved all the holiday stood for. Peace, hope, joy, love, honor. Remembrance."

"You don't need to be a Christian to appreciate the idea behind Christmas. It's really just a pagan festival glossed over by centuries of greedy priests."

He laughed. "Indeed. As Halloween was glossed over by the candy companies?"

"Right. Like you said. Peace, hope, joy, love, honor, remembrance. Birth, redemption, epiphany. It's all that, no matter what name you give it."

When he spoke again, she could hear the frown in his voice.

"Meiran would have liked you. Those were her sentiments exactly."

"She sounds like a very special woman."

"That she is. Full of life and fire and passion. Stubborn as an ox. Daring, but with a sweet gentle side."

"Is she your sister?"

"No. My wife."

Sally blinked. Once, twice. Wife? But the boy couldn't be but eighteen, despite his so philosophical way of speaking. And according to the charts, Meiran Chang was only sixteen.

"Ah..." she said.

"Do you have a husband, nurse?"

"No. I'm married to my work. At least, that's what my friends say."

"Hmm," was his reply.

"Are you staying here for Christmas? Is your family coming?"

"Yes... and no. I have no family left. No-one but her."

"Oh. Well... It may not count for much, but Merry Christmas."

And then, she turned and fled.

* * *

She couldn't help it. She didn't return to that room that night, but she couldn't help her thoughts kept trailing back to that almost forlorn young man. Every time she thought she'd let it go, it came back to her. That short little conversation filled with so much.

It was twelve in the afternoon when she finally was able to leave as the next shift came in, but she still couldn't shake it. Sighing, she thought of her apartment. It was warm, and comfortable. But it was lonely. She went into the nurses lounge and started to prepare a cup of tea to warm her before she set out.

But, staring at the heating water... she changed her mind and brought out two cups. She had no family, very few friends.

But she wouldn't spend Christmas morning alone this year.

In the soft light filtering in through the drawn shades, she saw black eyes staring at her with wonder, surprise.

She smiled softly as she held out the cup.

"It's apple-cinnamon," she said, and sat down in the empty chair next to him, drawing her feet up underneath her as she sipped at the warm tea.

"Thank you," he said at last, bringing the cup to his lips.

After a few silent moments, he spoke again. A single word.

"Why?"

She thought for a second. "It's Christmas," she shrugged at last. "Peace, hope, joy, love. Remembrance."

"Don't you have family to be with? Someone, somewhere?"

She raised her eyes, steel gray meeting with coal black. "I'm right where I'm needed. No-one should be alone on Christmas."

"I'm not alone," he said, eyes falling to the sleeping girl.

"But I would be," she whispered. "And besides... you looked like you needed a cup of tea."

He laughed, lightly. "I did. Our parents wanted us to get married. So we did. We never got along that well, but I did love her. And then our family died. And then... the car wreck." He raised eyes to Sally's again. "I've never been alone on Christmas, before," he admitted.

"And you're not this year," she insisted. She spent the next few hours just sitting there, talking with him. She never learned his name. And she never told him hers. They just talked.

Eventually, she took her leave and went home. She had two days off, and she intended to sleep through most of it.

She just wasn't prepared for the coal-black eyes that haunted her dreams.

Two days later, when she returned to Room 51... it was empty. She learned that Meiran Chang had passed away at ten o'clock Christmas night... mere hours after she'd left. She looked for obituaries, announcements, anything... but she found nothing.

Almost as if Meiran Chang and her young husband had never existed.

As if the dreams that haunted Sally's sleep... were nothing but figments of her imagination.

* * *

Exactly one year later, as the noon sun sparkled across the fallen snow, Sally stepped out of LVMC. Alot had changed in one year. She'd made head nurse... and she now ran the same wing she'd spent last Christmas in.

The town was silent as she made her way outside. Everyone was warm inside with their families. But not her. No... never her.

"Still spending Christmas's alone?" someone asked. She whirled, and came face to face with him... Meiran Chang's widower.

"No family," she said. "No friends. Nowhere I'm needed."

"You look like you could use a cup of tea," he said, tilting his head. His hair was slick and black, eyes dark as coal. He was maybe a few years younger than her.

"I do," she smiled softly.

"You said Christmas was for Peace. I've had too much of it. Joy... not enough. Remembrance... I do that. I can't forget. But you also said hope and love. I hope you can give me a chance. The last time you saw me, I was a heart-broken married man. I'm still a little broken, but I think I've moved on. Meiran would want me to move on... to love again."

Sally smiled. "We're all a little broken... and I'd like to give you that chance. My name's Sally... Sally Po."

He held out a hand to her, and she took it as he spoke.

"I'm Wufei Chang."

On that Christmas day, a bond formed the year before finally had a chance to blossom.

Thanks to Peace.

Thanks to Joy.

Thanks to Remembrance.

Thanks to Hope... and maybe...to Love.


End file.
